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BCM Chess Book Reviews : October 2006Return to the BCM Review Index
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As a callow youth, the first specialised opening book I ever bought was
Pritchett’s Batsford volume on the Scheveningen, back in the mid-1970s.
And a very fine book it was, thorough but at the same time lucid; indeed,
I still have my original copy, bearing the author’s signature, obtained
at the 1977 British Championship at Brighton. Now, some 30 years on, the
Scottish IM has returned to the theme, the pure Scheveningen, starting
with the moves 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 d6. The Starting
Out concept aims at presenting an understanding approach, rather than
getting bogged down in a lot of detail. At the same time, a modern Sicilian
line cannot realistically be presented without plenty of concrete variations.
Pritchett has handled this dilemma very well, offering a nice balance
between the two. Being a repertoire book, not every Black option is covered,
but against the 6 Be2 lines, several Black alternatives are given. The
main reason for the lack of popularity of the “Schev” at top
grandmaster level is the Keres Attack (6 g4), but Pritchett shows that
this is less dangerous than generally thought, and that 6...h6 offers
Black decent chances. Overall, a thorough and impressive effort, and a
worthy follow-up to its “great predecessor”.
This introduction to chess tactics and combinations starts from the
most basic (“It is not possible to block a check from an enemy knight”),
working up to two- and three-move combinations. All is written in Chris
Ward’s customary chatty style, and this is a good introduction to
basic chess tactics, for complete beginners. Even if you are not a complete
beginner, you may be interested as well, if only to find out what is meant
by the “Lawnmower Checkmate”.
The latest volume in the series devoted to Kramnik’s 1 Nf3 repertoire, covering the Old Indian, King’s Indian and Anti-Grünfeld (1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 Qa4+). As usual, the coverage is encyclopaedic in its detail, and will be useful, if not indispensable, to strong (2200+) players who open 1 Nf3. However, the average club player is likely to find it valuable only as a cure for insomnia.
A thorough introduction to basic opening principles, by one of Britain’s
best and most lucid authors. Chapters include Central Issues, Introducing
Development, King Safety and Pawn Play. These first 175 pages are then
followed by a further 70 covering the main lines of the principal openings.
An excellent introduction to a complex subject.
A further 135 games, annotated by Purdy, the great pedagogue. Games covered
range from world championships down to regional Australian and New Zealand
events, dating from 1938 up to 1979. Purdy was one of the best annotators
ever from the viewpoint of instructional value for the average player,
and this is an excellent collection. Unfortunately, it probably won’t
win the ECF Book of the Year award, although it will presumably win any
awards going for the longest title of the year.
A highly interesting and thought-provoking work by the Ukrainian grandmaster,
dealing with a variety of topics in the field of openings. Subjects covered
include opening experiments, disturbing the equilibrium, study of typical
opening structures, etc. Much interesting material, although readers looking
for concrete theoretical recommendations will, by and large, be disappointed.
This is very much a book about how to approach openings and opening preparation,
rather than specific openings themselves.
A bumper book of writings and games by the great Australian chess teacher
and world correspondence chess champion Cecil Purdy, who thought hard
about the problems confronting the player at the board, and came up with
solutions decades before Kotov’s candidate move theory. The good
reception accorded the original 1997 edition meant that a supplemented
update was well worthwhile, including some extra material on chess combinations.
There is much background material on the player himself. His writings
clearly inspired many students to master the difficult art of playing
chess well.The book is well laid out and attractively illustrated. Review
by Bernard Cafferty.
This is another thorough-looking effort from the Starting Out stable.
However, unlike other books in the series, this one is rather heavier
on detail and lighter on general explanations. For that reason, it may
have more appeal to stronger players who would not normally be attracted
to this series. In addition to the main line QGA, the book also has a
brief section on 1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 e3 Bg4,
presumably for those who cannot stand the tedium of defending the endgame
after 7 dxc5. The main problem with the book is that the QGA market is
rather crowded, and I am not sure how much this volume contains that is
not to be found in other recent offerings, such as Rizzitano’s 2005
effort How to Beat 1 d4.
This issue contains 428 annotated games and 517 variations and covers
events between January and April 2006. Events covered include Wijk aan
Zee, Gibraltar, Moscow, Cappelle la Grande, Morelia/Linares, Poikovsky,
Monaco, etc. The voting for the ten best games and the ten most important
theoretical novelties from the previous issue, theoretical survey in ECO
format, the most interesting recent combinations, endings and studies,
tournament standings and crosstables, and the best of John Nunn’s
creative output. Review by John Saunders.
A collection of 50 modern master games, illustrating different facets
of the game, such as sacrificial play, manoeuvring and pawn play. The
notes are detailed and very instructive, and the games themselves well-chosen.
There are 13 supplementary games and 45 exercises on the themes examined
complete a fine instructional work.
The latest issue of the Dutch publication, containing 32 theoretical
surveys, Sosonko’s Corner, Reader’s Forum, and Glenn Flear’s
book reviews. Amongst the openings surveyed are the usual crop of Sicilians,
plus an update by Almasi on his favourite Berlin Wall, and a contribution
on the Czech Benoni, by an author whose identity I am far too modest to
reveal.
This CD-ROM contains 359 games commented on by the German author and
coach, plus 14 commentary pages (in PDF format). It also contains a database
of a further 40,000 Two Knights Defence games. This is a pure data disk
and comes with no reader software. The data is in CBH (ChessBase) and
PGN formats. Review by John Saunders.
